


Almost Like An Evil Twin

by ShadowsOffense



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Asexual Character, Community: where_no_woman, Female Friendship, Gen, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-27
Updated: 2013-08-27
Packaged: 2017-12-24 21:02:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/944610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowsOffense/pseuds/ShadowsOffense
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt:  original Orion character (not!Gaila from the deleted scenes), just because she and Gaila are the only Orions at the Academy doesn't mean they're anything alike. (Interpret how you will.)</p><p>Nhen runs into Gaila at a bar.  She isn’t pleased.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Almost Like An Evil Twin

Nhen paused just inside the door of her favorite bar, _shi'naliveh_ (which, named in the typical fashion of Vulcan run establishments, logically translated as ‘place of drinking’). Unlike most of the bars on campus, it was quiet, well lit, and, most importantly, no one was trying to pick anyone else up. The last trait was what made it her favorite, but it was the first two conditions, however, that allowed Nhen to have an unimpeded view of the redheaded figure sitting at the bar. She bristled as she spotted the cadet’s green skin, a darker shade, by far, than any Vulcan boasted.

They had only met in passing once (Nhen fleeing as soon as she reasonably could), but it didn’t matter, Nhen had hated her from the moment she found out about Gaila. Gaila was Orion, Gaila was a redhead, and that was enough.

Of course, finding out the way she did (a stranger’s hand on her ass and tongue against her lips, all of which was horribly unwanted) didn’t help matters any.

Nhen shifted her weight in the doorway, wondering if she should just leave. It was the memory of her clan mother’s voice that prompted her into motion. _You are nothing,_ Tieva had told her sister’s daughter sternly, _your status is nothing, if you wish for anything you must take it and let no one take it from you._ That was the Orion way; that was everything that Nhen had repudiated. But she refused to be nothing here too.

She had made it half way to the bar before her feet froze. _What am I doing?_ She was being horribly, horribly rude, that was what. But it was too late; the air was already filled with the scent of Nhen’s displeasure. Gaila’s spine stiffed as her nose caught the pheromones Nhen was releasing into the air. Pheromones that announced this was Nhen’s territory, too subtle to be understood by anyone but another Orion (or a Deltan, but, as none were present, that was irrelevant).

“Sorry,” Nhen muttered as she slid onto a stool a few chairs down, resolutely not looking at the other cadet.

“Why do you dislike me so much?” Gaila’s own scent was warm and welcoming. _Sister,_ it whispered.

“I don’t.”

Gaila looked at her doubtfully. “Free born?” she asked at last, obviously seeking a reason for Nhen’s seemingly baseless disdain.

“No.”

Gaila frowned. “Me neither.”

The shared past hovered between them, something their Federation born classmates couldn’t understand. Both had escaped from a society that made them slaves unless they enslaved those who thought to own them. Gaila, too, knew what it was like to have her status rest solely on those she ensnared. Nhen could see that the young cadet thought this understanding should bind them together, but it didn’t, because Gaila didn’t really understand at all. Nhen turned away.

“Alright, seriously, what is it?” Gaila boldly picks her drink up and moves closer, so they are sitting side by side. “What have I done to you?”

“It’s nothing you’ve done.” Nhen makes a frustrated gesture with one hand as Gaila just waits. “Look, before you came here no one ever stopped me in the halls to ask for sex, ok?” Well almost never anyway. 

“Oh,” Gaila sat back. “Are you having trouble getting enough sexual partners? Do you want me to-?”

“No!” Nhen gritted her teeth together. “I’m asexual.”

“Oh,” Gaila’s eyes widened. Calling someone asexual was just about the worst insult there was in the Orion language; admitting that was admitting that she would never control another, never have any status, and never be more than property. It was something that occurred in other species (or in species like Vulcans, where they pretended it happened even though it didn’t), species that had things like monogamy or gender preference (also dirty words); not in Orions. “But,” Gaila fumbled for words for a moment. “What does that have to do with me?” 

Nhen blinked. “Red hair, green skin, people think I’m you.”

“Oh,” Gaila said again, this time in true understanding. “I could tell them about you!” she offered suddenly. “Then they wouldn’t.”

“All of them?” Nhen asked doubtfully.

Gaila shrugged. “I’ll just add it to the list.” Her eyes twinkled and for a moment Nhen smiled back. Even from her perspective, the majority of federation species (humans and vulcans) were hopelessly backwards about sex.

“You don’t have to.”

This time Gaila smiled; the result was blinding. “I want to,” there was clear joy in her tone at doing something simply because she wished to do it. 

“Thanks,” Nhen looked down at the bar, running her fingers along the edge of her sleeve. “I should go.”

“Wait,” Galia’s picked her drink up again and rose to her feet as Nhen stood, preparing to depart. “You could stay. Just for talking”

Nhen’s eyes closed as she took a moment to savor the offer she never expected another Orion to make. 

“My roommate and Commander Spock, you know him, he’s one of the computer science instructors, are meeting me here,” Gaila rushed to crowd out the silence with her words. “You’d be welcome to join us. There’s a presentation of ancient Vulcan poetry we were hoping to attend. Pre-surakian. I don’t speak a word of it, but Nicoya’s promised to translate.”

“Sorry,” Nhen’s surprised to find she truly means it. A part of her wants to say yes, but Gaila is too much of the home she never had. She turned to go again and Gaila doesn’t stop her again. But in the silver walls Nhen sees her take a deep breath. And smile. 

_Sister._


End file.
